Sembrar en Asocio 2

Three of Santiago Sabino's eight children pose with him in the well-tended plantain, fruit, and watermelon plot.

Last week while I was visiting some of the participants in the reforestation project I found another clever companion-planting combination. Don Santiago Sabino lives about 8 kilometers off the main road, down a dirt road that turned into a mud pit after only one rainfall the night before. We nearly didn’t make it there with the motorcycle. Santiago has planted his citrus and plantain trees en asocio, putting two plantain trees in between each citrus. While the citrus trees are small he can use the same irrigation system for both plants, and the plantain trees will help ‘hide’ the citrus trees from white moths, the citrus’ main pest.

Trying to get the motorcycle through a muddy river. I walked more than half of the 6 kilometers back because the extra weight on the back of the motorcycle made the back wheel spin in the mud.

Not all the participants in the project have irrigation, but Santiago has a pump set up in the river nearby, and has a gravitational irrigation system, where he has dug trenches that run alongside of the rows of plants. The water is pumped up from the river and then runs down the hill in the trenches, watering the trees. Underneath each plantain tree is a sprouting pipian or watermelon plant. Santiago figured that he planting the seeds at the base of the plantain tree will take advantage of the same water and fertilizer, and the sale of the watermelon and pipian will pay for the gas he needs to run the pump and operate the irrigation. Santiago has a farm of 60 manzanas that he has bought bit by bit over the years. He has about 20 cattle right now, but also has years of vegetable experience, which helped him to figure out this clever way of paying for his irrigation. He has one of the most diverse farms I’ve seen here, with fruit trees surrounding his house and a large garden with peppers, tomatoes, papaya, and more watermelon. CEPRODEL selected his farm to trial cocoa plants and see whether they produce well in that zone. He is still figuring out a good spot and system for planting the cocoa in partial shade.

Santiago's youngest son shows the small watermelon seedlings just sprouting underneath the plantain tree.

A more well established Pipian squash plant growing at the base of a mango sapling. The gravitational irrigation system Santiago dug (trenches going downhill with a pump to fill them) ensures that the plants receive plenty of water.

Share this

Like this:

Related

5 Responses to “Sembrar en Asocio 2”

My best advice for my neighbors, as far as an alternative to herbicide goes, was to suggest that they mulch heavily with the debris left over from macheteando. Again, you can tell I’m a total novice here.

I am going to see if I can procure some mung beans from somewhere in Rivas this afternoon.

I hope they are receptive to this idea…we’ll see. Hopefully after reading such a formal printout explaining the concept, they will be less skeptical. Reliance on chemicals runs deep, even in the middle of nowhere. That fact is the most troubling of all.

Thanks so much for your help. If you ever decide to take a trip down this way, please let me know.

Mulching is very good advice, it’s basically a slowed down composting cycle that can help conserve moisture in the soil while it decomposes. It works particularly well with perrennial crops like fruit or coffee trees. Nicaraguan soil could benefit enormously from mulching and composting with all the dried leaves and brush that are regularly burnt!

Great news…My neighbors told me on Friday that they are not going to use veneno on their crops this year. Their new plan includes tilling and planting in asocio with sandia and pipian. The basura left over from clearing the land will also be used as much as possible to suppress the monte. They realize it will be far more labor intensive initially but it seems the long term benefit of caring for the soil is now taking priority.

My name is Linda and I live in the outer reaches of the Tola region, on the coast just a few Km down the road from El Astillero.

Since 2007 my husband and I have been working on our own sustainable building project mostly for OUR own learning purposes. Thanks to our amazing Nica neighbors and employees the overall experience has been a truly awesome cultural exchange and collaboration.

Now that our house is fairly finished, I am devoting the majority of my time and our resources on the land. I have no background in organic farming so everything I do is trial by fire. I’m loving it. I have a zillion questions for you, however I’ve narrowed it down to just three for the moment.

1. Can you suggest a viable alternative to spraying herbicide and pesticide on a plot prepped for corn cultivation? My neighbor is preparing to plant and I’m getting the sense he is open to trying a chemical-free approach this season. I’d like to provide him with GOOD advice and instruction. Can you help us?

2. I am eager to find a good source for seeds/palos injertos perhaps in Nandaime or Jinotepe? Do you know of a place/person that will sell me a variety of seeds/trees for veggies, nuts, citrus, ANYTHING?

3. If there is one single nugget of wisdom you could offer with regards to organic small-scale farming in this Pacific Southwest region of Nica, I am all ears/eyes!

The best way to give soil an organic boost when transitioning from chemical based farming is using leguminous cover crops such as clover, vetch, soy, or mung beans. In Nicaragua, the most common cover crops I’ve come across (and the only ones I’ve seen being used with success) are mung beans, called frijol mungo and cowpeas, frijol alacin. The UNAN Leon university Agroecology department sells mung bean seed, you can contact them through their website. The beans are cultivated in, or turned under the soil, when they are flowering, before the corn is planted. If your neighbor plants corn during the canicula (july/august) than he can prepare and plant the beans during the first rains now and they will have flowered in time to incorporate them and plant corn in late july. Organic sesame farmers in Achuapa have found this to be the most effective results on yeilds, and even better when used in conjunction with generous applications of composted cow manure and bio-fermento foliar fertilizer. There is an article in spanish about that on the FAO website here http://www.fao.org/teca/content/cultivos-de-cobertura-fr%C3%ADjol-alacin-vigna-unguiculata-asociado-con-ma%C3%ADz-y-maicillo

I’m sorry I don’t have any contacts in that part of Nicaragua, I would ask some neighboring farmers.

My first bit of wisdom for anyone growing anything organically is COMPOST!!! Make use of every available nutrient and don’t waste anything. Composting toilets, compost kitchen scraps, and compost manure. That an a good rotation so you don’t build up species specific pests and diseases on your farm.